Question

I am particularly interested in Document Libraries, but in terms of general SharePoint lists, can anyone answer the following…?

1. What is the maximum number of items that a SharePoint list can contain?
2. What is the maximum number of lists that a single SharePoint server can host?
3. When the number of items in the list approaches the maximum, does filtering slow down, and if so, what can be done to improve it?

Answer 1

In SharePoint v.2:

• Max # list items : 2000 (per folder level)
• Max lists per site : 2000 is a ‘reasonable’ number
• Effect when we reach the limit : Exponential degradation of performance.

More info: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc287743.aspx

In SharePoint v.3:

• Max # list items : 2000 (per view, you can have million items as long as you don’t display in a single view more than 2000 items)
• Max lists per site : 2000 is a ‘reasonable’ number
• Effect when we reach the limit : Exponential degradation of performance when we enumerate more than 2000 items using the OM. An alternative is to use Search API or CAML queries.

More info: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc287790.aspx